Revelations
"Seek to better yourself, in that way becoming an example to others. But most importantly, seek to better others, lest you find your power over them tempting to use for evil purposes." --Faust Glawio, Unsung Teachings, Vol. 4 Revelations is an interlude and serves as the introduction to the second book in the series Bad Tidings. It follows the Legends of Altmar as they travel south through various means to the city of Vice, where their next adventure awaits. The story is told in two parts, as the party split after the events of Adventures in Strombran. The interlude sets up several of the conflicts that take place in Bad Tidings, and gets all of the characters to the same place in Vice. Plot After being split up, the party each finds their own ways to get to Vice, some through the war-torn Heen, and others across the dangerous, icy waters to the North of Altmar ''The Split'' Rikkert, Niavara, Baravio, and Emilia are teleported by Reemo Starson far to the south, towards Vice however, it is not Vice they end up in, but the neighboring city of Heen. Specifically, they find themselves suddenly in Sartan's Temple, the main holy center of the Church of Sartan, and not only that have appeared in the council chamber of the Church of Sartan. Emilia, sickened by the teleportation magic, vomits on the shoes of a young priestess standing before her. The priestess however turns out to be Anise, Mother of the Church of Sartan and ruler of Heen. She ends her meeting preemptively, to the shouts of many of the priests, most of whom complained about interference from the Magicians. Anise informs them that they are not the first magicians to arrive in Heen. Orthus Fenrali and his apprentice are visiting as well. Anise arranges comforts for them. Emilia seems concerned about the toll the Heenic War has taken on the city of Heen, which now lies mostly in ruins. Baravio tells her this is all the Empire's doing, making her feel worse. Baravio meets with Fenrali and his apprentice who turns out to be his lover, Annie. Fenrali informs Baravio he must be careful in the coming days, as distrust and deception is swarming around the Magicians. A coup to oust Archmage Sylvannis is being planned, and Fenrali tells Baravio he will need to choose a side soon. Rikkert and Niavara explore the temple and hear shouts from a strange door. After distracting a guard, they enter to find a prisoner, beaten, chained to a wall. After some questioning he reveals he is from Abington and is involved in a plot with a Leonian man called Reince. He tells them Reince betrayed him and left him to be captured by Heenic guards. He also informs them that Reince is a double agent working for the Empire and Leon. With this new information, the two leave before the guard returns. The next day the party gears up and heads South to Vice, their ultimate destination. As they pass through Outer Heen, Baravio asks the party to make a quick stop. He takes them to a small fishing village, but finds that the village is almost entirely destroyed. He rushes to the town's small chapel, and discovers the remains of most of the village. He bursts into tears, realizing that his family is dead, but is interrupted by an old blind man, who Baravio immediately recognizes as his estranged father. Together, they bury Baravio's mother and sister and have a heart to heart. Balthazar gives his son his mother's talisman, and the party leaves, continuing on to Vice. As they leave Heen, they run across a burning homestead, and a Cagilan patrol lead by the Marauding Captain who claims that they have put undead in the building to destroy them all at once. Rikkert doesn't buy it, and he and Niavara kill the Captain and his men. Emilia is horrified, but understands the reasoning. They approach the gates of Vice. ''Alia Alone'' Alia rides off into the night after her banishment from Strombran. The next day she approaches a troll blocking the road. After attempting to outwit it, the troll attacks her, knocking her out and dragging her into its lair. She managed to free herself before beeing eaten by the troll, escaping into the Magewoods. In the Magewoods, while looking for Atlas, she stumbled upon a small ball of light, a forest spirit being attacked by tree blights, still wounded she decided not to intervene, and the blights captured the forest spirit, before wandering off deeper into the woods. Shortly after she was approached by Kirin who lectured her about letting innocent die, before encouraging Alia to let go of her anger. He then granted her a blessing to help her, and led her to Atlas. After offering her some encouraging words once more, she departed the Magewoods. Finally reaching Fallharbour, behind her companions due to her capture by the troll, she set about finding them, receiving no answer at the Magician's Tower, she inquired about town, running into Gavin Stormwind, who informed her that looking for Baravio was a bad idea as the missing wizard is currently wanted by the Archmage. After getting a lead near the docks, Alia questioned Captain Marco DeWitt about the group's whereabouts. He told them they had originally planned to sail with them to Aelswell, but never showed. Alia decided they must have found some other means of transport and decided to meet them there, agreeing to tag along with Marco, who was in need of additional muscle. On the Shady Goat, Alia met with the crew including Delyin Adlam, Fabi and Filroy Fitzward, Barry Boldwater, and a grumpy Roberto Rylan. The next day they awoke to a strange fog, which Fabi told her was Mongundr, the Magical Mist, a an old sailor's tale. Strange things began to happen as each of the crew was affected differently by the strange magical energy. Suddenly they were attacked by Viking raiders who had come out of the mist. Mad with bloodlust and possibly affected by the mist themselves, they dueled fiercely on deck of the Goat, where Barry was tossed overboard to his death. After the Vikings were dispatched, a Glacial Kraken appeared, ready to feast on the remains. The beast grabbed both Delyin and Filroy, and Alia chose to free Delyin from the monster's grasp, leaving Filroy to be dragged into the icy depths. Alia helped Delyin back to her feet, comforting her, and assisted Marco with tossing the dead overboard. With the ship damaged in the attack, the crew took shelter on a small icy island in the sea. Marco asked Alia to scout out the island and make sure nothing would get the drop on them. Delyin joined her as they scaled a glacial formation nearby, which led to an icy cavern. In the cavern, the pair discovered a few items with the remains of a Viking war party from long ago, including Bal-Kathar's Wedding Band, and the Shield of Bulwo. But more fascinatingly, they discovered a white dragon encased in ice deep within the cave. Seeing no immediate danger, the two returned to camp. After a brief, somewhat hostile exchange with a still grieving Fabi, Alia finished her watch and went to sleep. She awoke to Fabi on her with a knife, attempting to kill her in her sleep, after a brief duel, the others joined in to help her, Delyin subduing him by stabbing him in the leg with a knife. Marco leaves his fate in Alia's hands who decides to spare him. She then attempts to save his leg from amputation which she does, leaving Marco impressed. Finally they arrive in Gibalt, when Alia gets a message from a mysterious Magician, telling her that he forgot to tell her that her friends teleported to Vice. Alia is able to convince the Gibaltan sailors to take her to Vice to rejoin her party which they do. Bestiary *Glacial Kraken *Thug (Gibaltan) *Soldier (Imperial) *Captain (Imperial) Trivia *First Appearences of: Mother Anise, Orthus Fenrali, Annie Sercrest, Balthazar Lanar, the Marauding Captain, Gavin Stormwind, Marco DeWitt, Roberto Rylan, Delyin Adlam, Barry Boldwater, Fabi Fitzward, Filroy Fitzward *This chapter has the most characters introduced at 12 new characters. *''Alia Alone'' took place entirely over Discord, in text-based sessions *The initial plan was for all the characters to meet in Fallharbour and travel to Vice together either via boat or through teleportation, however Baravio's insistence on teleporting immediately forced the session to be split. *Only Baravio knew about the wizard's coup that was brewing, following his exit in Monsters Get Slain no other characters are aware of that subplot. *The crew of the Shady Goat are some of the DM's personal favorite characters *The entire crew of the Shady Goat and their stories and personalities were made up on the spot. Category:Chapters Category:Bad Tidings Chapters